Conventional motors for propelling a vehicle typically employ a drive shaft that, through a transmission, engages wheels having frictional contact with a road surface. The energy source that powers the vehicle thus provides a force that bears upon the road surface and causes the road surface to react with a frictional force that accelerates the vehicle. Alternatively, a jet or rocket motor utilizes an energy source to expel a fluid at high momentum in one direction. The jet or rocket powered vehicle reacts to the loss of momentum by gaining momentum in the opposite direction or using the momentum transfer to overcome frictional forces. Propeller driven vehicles combine both techniques by using a drive shaft to rotate a propeller that imparts momentum to an external fluid. In reaction, the vehicle moves in the direction opposite to the direction of motion of the fluid.
Inertial motors derive an instantaneous motion by the internal transfer of momentum among the components of the vehicle. As momentum is imparted to an internal component the remainder of the vehicle reacts by gaining momentum in the opposite direction. U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,196 has provided for a linear system in which a mass is accelerated opposite to the direction of motion of the vehicle, imparting momentum to move the vehicle forward. The vehicle is then temporarily anchored to the ground while the mass is returned to its initial position. The anchoring to the ground prevents the vehicle from simply oscillating and returning to its initial position. The result is a jerky motion of the vehicle forward. In FIG. 1C of the '196 patent an electromagnetic version is proposed.
FIGS. 5A and 5B of the '196 patent show a rotary adaptation. Here, weights 50 are advanced by actuators and springs or by grooved cylinders 90 mounted on a disk 91. In both these examples it appears that the weights 50 are centrally pivoted, by which it is understood that the center of gravity of the weight is moved tangentially but not radially.